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PHOTOGRAPHY & THE AMERICAN STAGE

THE VISUAL CULTURE OF AMERICAN THEATER 1865-1965

A resource for students of American Theater, devotees of performing arts photography, historians of American visual culture, curators of image collections, and collectors of dramatic, operatic, balletic, and vaudevillian memorabilia.

This site supplies cogent biographical profiles and histories of the most artistically significant and culturally influential theatrical photographers and studios. It treats camera artists operating in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Columbus, Washington, D. C., St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Denver, and San Francisco from the Civil War to the Vietnam War, or in theatrical terms, from "The Black Crook" to "Fiddler on the Roof."

This site also constitutes a pictorial directory of performers, supplying a resonant image, or series of images from various photographers for a performing artist as well as a capsule biography indicating his or her significance in the chronicle of the America stage.

This site charts the evolution of the stage picture from the studio tableaux of the 1870s to the theatrical scene still of the 1880s and 1890s to the publicity production still of the 20th century.

It also documents landmark moments in stage decor, costuming, and lighting design.

Dr. David S. Shields, McClintock Professor, University of South Carolina